Boston College goes for another Beanpot

By Nick Tarnoff Asst. Sports Editor

The Boston College Eagles baseball team will fight to defend its Beanpot title against the Northeastern Huskies baseball squad this Wednesday at Fenway Park. Last Thursday afternoon BC defeated the Harvard Crimson by a 5-2 score behind a dominant pitching performance from senior right-hander Ted Ratliff.

The Eagles will go into Wednesday's game against Northeastern on a five-game winning streak and having won seven of their past eight games - a string that started with a 6-3 win over Harvard on April 11.

In Thursday's tilt, the Crimson got to Ratliff in the bottom of the second to take a one-run lead - a lead that would be short-lived, however, as the Eagles came right back in the bottom of the inning and tallied three runs.

The scrappy Eagles played small ball, stealing bases, bunting, and getting timely hits. Jared McGuire, Joe Ayers, and Pete Frates all collected RBIs in the inning for the Eagles.

Harvard put a second run on the board in the top of the third, but that's all that Ratliff would yield to the Crimson, as he clamped down and only gave up two hits over the final six innings.

The senior pitcher racked up nine strikeouts and only walked one man on the way to collecting his fourth victory of the season and continuing his dominance of the Crimson.

BC would cling to a 3-2 lead until the eighth inning, when the team collected two more runs off of Crimson pitcher Dan Zailskas.

BC freshman catcher Tony Sanchez started the inning by singling to center, and moved to third on Eric Campbell's double down the left-field line.

Mike Augustine chased Sanchez home for the Eagle's fourth run of the game with a single to center.

Campbell scored the Eagle's fifth run of the game on McGuire's sacrifice fly to right, which gave McGuire his second RBI of the game.

Ratliff closed off the game by striking out the side in the ninth inning for his seventh, eighth, and ninth strikeouts of the game.

The Eagles head into Wednesday's game with a great deal of momentum following a weekend sweep over ACC rival Wake Forest.

BC received good starting pitching all weekend from Kevin Boggan, Terry Doyle, and Dan Houston, and had two dramatic victories; a come-from-behind, 5-4, walk-off win on Friday and a 17-inning, 4-3 victory on Saturday.

Boggan pitched seven innings, striking out seven batters, and surrendering two runs on Friday, while Doyle pitched nine innings on Saturday and struck out 12 batters.

Nate Jeanes pitched the last five and two-thirds innings on Saturday, collecting nine strikeouts, and Houston pitched six strong innings on Sunday afternoon as the Eagles completed the sweep.

If the starting pitching continues to be consistent, and BC can get a strong start from whomever takes the hill on Wednesday, then BC should be in a good position to win its second straight Beanpot.

BC's offense has come alive as of late as well and has been paced by Campbell, Ryan Hutchinson, and Ayers. Campbell, who collected eight hits over the weekend, leads the squad in batting average (among active players), hitting at a .338 clip. Ayers notched seven hits in the weekend series with Wake Forest, including going four-for-four in Sunday's series finale.

Northeastern is 11-2 in the month of April, coming off of a 2-1 weekend win over Georgia State and beating UMass 17-6 on Thursday afternoon at Friedman Field in Brookline.

"I don't know how they did, I know that they beat Georgia State on Friday, I'm not sure how they did yesterday, but they were on a nine-game winning streak and had been playing really good baseball," said BC coach Miko Aoki, "and it's going to be a challenge."

The Huskies were paced offensively by senior Dan Milano, who put the Huskies on the board in the first inning with a grand slam, which extended his school 19-game hitting streak.

Mike Tamsin, Frank Compagnone, and Tony DiCesare all collected three hits in the contest for the Huskies, and Compagnone and DiCesare each had three RBIs as well. Josh Porter leads the club with a .392 batting average and is joined by three other starters who are hitting well over the .300 mark for the season.

Milano and Mike Lyons swing the big bats in the line-up as the two are tied for the team lead with eight home runs, and Milano leads the club with 32 RBIs.

Dan Zehr collected his third win of the year, pitching six innings and surrendering only one run on five hits, while striking out two.

Although neither club has announced a starting pitcher, it is conceivable that each squad will throw its fourth pitcher, as both teams come off three-game weekend series'. In that case, the likely match-up would pit Zehr against Ratliff.

Northeastern's top starting pitchers include Kris Dabrowiecki who has a 6-1 record with a 2.79 ERA and 46 strikeouts in 51.2 innings and Trevor Smith who has a 5-2 record with a 4.70 ERA and 40 strikeouts in 46 innings.

The two teams met earlier in the season on April 3, with BC coming out on top 10-3. BC got a stellar pitching performance from Dan Houston, who scattered nine hits over eight innings, giving up only two earned runs and striking out six Husky batters. Hutchinson, Belfiore, Campbell, and Mark Ortega all chipped in with two RBIs in the win.

"We got Northeastern the first time we played them here," said BC coach Aoki, "but they're a much-improved team since the last time we played them, so we're going to have to bring out 'A' game to beat them. The opportunity to play at Fenway doesn't come along very often, so all that makes for a pretty big game for us. The Beanpot is certainly something that is going to be the goal for us to win every year."

BC and Northeastern do battle Wednesday afternoon at 3 p.m. at Fenway Park with the Eagles seeking their second-straight Beanpot title. n